Gravure-printed, banded cigarette paper

A method of making banded cigarette paper comprising the steps of:

• advancing cigarette paper to a first printing station;
• printing a first layer of a film-forming composition directly on the cigarette paper, the composition comprising a viscous aqueous solution of 20 to 50% by weight of a film-forming compound, including:
• heating the film-forming composition;
• applying the heated film-forming composition to a patterned gravure cylinder;
• contacting the advancing cigarette paper with the patterned gravure cylinder;
• and
• gelling the film-forming composition by contact with the cigarette paper surface and by quenching the film-forming composition so that the film-forming composition does not disrupt planarity of the cigarette paper wherein the quenching step includes using a nip roller while cooling the nip roller.